ABSTRACT
In Tudor times Whitechapel without Aldgate was, as its name suggests, an outparish or suburb of the City of London proper, lying as it did just outside the walls. Alien immigrants were a familiar sight in the eastern wards of London, for in the Returns of Aliens for 1568 and 1571 Aldgate ward had one of the largest concentrations of strangers.2 Nevertheless, William Friend, a sidesman of Whitechapel parish, was still suspicious when he noticed a crowd of foreigners going into a house close to the church on Easter morning, 3 April 1575. He duly alerted the constable John Osborne, to whom the house belonged, and two other officers and, together with the rector, Richard Gardiner, they went to investigate. On entering the house, they found some 27 Flemish Anabaptists,3 assembled for a religious meeting. The officers placed them under arrest, took their names and ordered them not to leave the building. While the rector and the constable returned to the church for the service, Friend and two other officers notified the bishop of London, Edwin
1 This essay, originally published in 2000, has been extensively revised. In particular, parts 3 and 4 have been corrected and amplified.
